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Already reeling from a series of financial hits in the past year, Los Angeles Unified School District officials recently learned that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s new state budget plan could chop an additional $200 million from the district next year. Connie Llanos in the Daily News.

LAUSD was already facing an expected budget deficit of $470 million next year. But officials found tucked in the fine print of the governor’s budget an additional, unexpected cut of $250 per student for 2010-11, potentially raising the district’s deficit to $670 million.

The discovery comes just six weeks before the district faces a state deadline to begin handing out pink slips to teachers and administrators who could be laid off next year.

As the state begins releasing thousands of prison inmates this week, Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca said he hopes to obtain detailed information on the prisoners to help deputies track their whereabouts and encourage them to enroll in education programs. Troy Anderson in the Daily News

“In sum, this presents a problem that we have not had before,” Baca told the Board of Supervisors Tuesday. “We intend to track them and offer them classes that would be appropriate for life-skills development and how to function at a more civilized level in their communities and hopefully not commit new crimes.”

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation on Monday began reducing its 170,000-inmate prison system by 6,500 inmates over the next year as part of a new cost-saving effort.

After years of wrangling, the Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday approved a medical marijuana ordinance that slaps tougher restrictions on pot clinics and will likely shut down hundreds of dispensaries across the city.Daily News.

The 9-3 vote drew loud protests from clinic supporters, who plan to challenge it in court, but was also blasted by medical marijuana critics who said allowing any clinics flies in the face of federal law.

“To us it looks like the council has a de facto ban on medical marijuana,” said Kris Hermes, spokesman for the pro-medical marijuana group Americans for Safe Access.

aced with a grim financial picture, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa warned his department heads Tuesday to prepare for even more budget cuts, as City Council members described the city’s finances as a “full-blown emergency.” Daily News.

In a series of meetings throughout the day, the mayor and city officials worked on a plan to address a $200 million shortfall in this year’s budget and a projected $400 million deficit for next year.

“We have never seen a time like this,” Council President Eric Garcetti said at the end of a nearly two-hour closed door City Council meeting. “As a council, we are unified in the approach we have to take and in what we need to do to get on firm financial footing.”

The state began reducing its prison population by 6,500 inmates Monday as part of a new cost-saving effort that also includes removing supervision for more than 7,700 parolees in Los Angeles County alone. Troy Anderson in the Daily News.

The state legislation that was passed last year amid the California budget crisis has alarmed law enforcement officials and victims-rights groups, who warned it would jeopardize public safety and reverse a years-long trend of declining crime rates.

Some law enforcement officials expressed particular concern about a provision that will reclassify 7,720 county parolees from supervised to nonsupervised status – allowing gang members to rejoin gangs and parolees to move wherever they want. Los Angeles County has about 34,000 parolees overall.